Carol Tripp on sat 6 dec 03
Greetings,
I was at my travel agent's the other day delivering a coffee mug to the
owner who missed out buying a berry bowl from me at my stall last week.* It
was a gift and as she opened it, one of her agents jumped out of her chair
with the words, "Are you a potter?" She then escorted me outside and showed
me a photo of a puzzle mug. She wants to have a puzzle mug on each table at
her wedding reception. (I guess she wants her fellow agents to not be
in-the-know about the puzzle and that's why we had to discuss this outside.
I am not really that crazy about the idea of wedding guests accidentally
spilling drinks down their fronts but what the bride to be wants, she gets.
Or at least that's what I suppose. My own wedding planning consisted of
flipping a coin and then getting married 48 hours later. No fuss at all.)
To cut to the chase, I've never made a puzzle mug, let alone seen or used
one in real life. I've had a look at the article by Delia Robinson and
photos of Jennifer Boyer making a puzzle mug
http://www.ceramicstoday.com/articles/puzzle_mug2.htm
This looks complicated, fiddly and probably expensive in terms of time
needed for each mug. I'm not a production potter and I guess I am looking
for an experienced potter to say, "Don't touch this job with a ten foot pole
unless you can charge XXX per piece and you enjoy torture." Oh, and the
bride to be would also want names and dates on each mug. (Methods for doing
this were recently discussed at length on Clayart and, needless to say, I
wasn't paying attention at the time. Anyone remember the thread name
please? I haven't been able to scare it up on the Archives yet. And when I
find that thread, I'll also get some alternative ideas to give to the bride
to be...)
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Carol
Dubai, UAE
*Where I had my first table sale at the Dubai Art Centre Craft Fair last
week. "Craft" being a complete mismoner as out of 150 tables, probably 25
at most had items made by the seller and most of that was jewelry.
Tupperware was to my left. Need I say more? What I found out is that 99
people out of 100 don't even glance at pottery but the 1 that does buys
some. I had a pretty good day and learned alot.
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Jennifer Boyer on sat 6 dec 03
Hi Carol
Run don't walk away from this order: As the owner of the hands making
the mugs in the pix from Delia's article, I can affirm that they ARE
fussy and labor intensive.... and if she wants them to have names on
them it's even worse. SO many opportunities for things to go wrong!
I've just had 2 special order situations where the customers weren't
satisfied and I'm coming to the conclusion that for ME the customer
service part of my job must be scaled back a bit.... I don't HAVE to
commit to every idea of every customer... I've earned the right to say
NO, diplomatically of course...
Unhappy customers make the work so miserable. It's wise to learn to
head these situations off before they happen....I'm trying to talk
MYSELF into this new mindset....
Jennifer snowed in in Vermont: too bad it's my holiday studio sale!
On Saturday, December 6, 2003, at 07:56 AM, Carol Tripp wrote:
> Greetings,
> I was at my travel agent's the other day delivering a coffee mug to the
> owner who missed out buying a berry bowl from me at my stall last
> week.* It
> was a gift and as she opened it, one of her agents jumped out of her
> chair
> with the words, "Are you a potter?" She then escorted me outside and
> showed
> me a photo of a puzzle mug. She wants to have a puzzle mug on each
> table at
> her wedding reception. (I guess she wants her fellow agents to not be
> in-the-know about the puzzle and that's why we had to discuss this
> outside.
> I am not really that crazy about the idea of wedding guests
> accidentally
> spilling drinks down their fronts but what the bride to be wants, she
> gets.
> Or at least that's what I suppose. My own wedding planning consisted of
> flipping a coin and then getting married 48 hours later. No fuss at
> all.)
>
***********************************************
never pass on virus warnings or emails with checking them at:
http://snopes.com
Jennifer Boyer - Thistle Hill Pottery
Montpelier, VT 05602
http://thistlehillpottery.com
***********************************************
Fredrick Paget on sat 6 dec 03
Carol,
I have made about five or six puzzle mugs in the last few years and
they were each a challenge. Very fiddley. Takes a lot of time.
The URL you gave:
http://www.ceramicstoday.com/articles/puzzle_mug2.htm
has excellent directions.
I devised a way to keep the channels open by imbedding cooked pasta
strands in the clay. It shrinks along with the clay and burns out so
you have an open passageway. You just pull a regular handle cut it
open, lay in the pasta and close it up again. Leave a length of pasta
hanging out the ends, then attach the handle and lay the protruding
pasta into the cup in the rim and the opening at the bottom.
The biggest challenge is to find pasta of large enough diameter. I
found some japanese udon noodles that are larger than spaghetti.
Macaroni would be good except that all I have seen in the stores is
cut up in short pieces. I have even tried to make some by extruding
egg noodle dough through an extruder but the result was very lumpy
and weak.
I think I will visit Japantown in San Francisco where there are
chefs that hand pull noodles and get one of them to make me some
large diameter ones.
Stored cooked noodles go bad so I put a bit of biocide in the water
they are stored in. I used sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate which
I get from a wine making supplies store. Formalin would work too but
it is out of favor nowadays . (Somebody post the dangers of
formaldehyde here).
The verse or the writing could be a decal made on a laser printer.
This is another subject altogether that is in the archives. Look
under my name or photoceramics or photographic images on clay, etc,
Fred
--
From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
fredrick@well.com
william schran on sat 6 dec 03
Carol wrote:>To cut to the chase, I've never made a puzzle mug, let
alone seen or used
one in real life. ..... This looks complicated, fiddly and probably
expensive in terms of time
needed for each mug. I'm not a production potter and I guess I am looking
for an experienced potter to say, "Don't touch this job with a ten foot pole
unless you can charge XXX per piece and you enjoy torture." <
Carol - First thing I'd recommend is to simply try making one and see
how long it takes and how hard it is to complete one. Then decide if
you can make them, then if you have the time and/or desire to make
the number needed. If you don't want to tackle the project, tell the
bride to be: "the time and effort for each one of these puzzle mugs
would mean each one would cost - "insert outrageous dollar figure"
and see what see says.
Bill
Wood Jeanne on sat 6 dec 03
Hi Carol,
I make puzzle mugs/jugs and yes, they are fiddly.
I learned to make them because they looked like fun to
me and I love the historical aspect rather than
because of an order. Either goal is, of course, a good
reason to make them.
For the possibility you decide to take this order. I'd
advise making sure you have lots of lead time and get
a good price. Of the first several I made, there were
quite a few dysfunctions (is that a pottery word or
just a psychology word now?). Like any unusual shape,
by the time you've made about 50+ there will be fewer
fatalities.
This is no guarantee for the safety of the wedding
guests finery, but I've noticed when people first see
the puzzle jug rather than trying to chug out of them
it is more typical to look at them skeptically. So I
haven't seen many bad spills. I hesitate to bring them
to art fairs though because so many people put the
jugs to their mouths to try to drink (carefully) from
them, and I don't like the germ spreading aspect.
If you do the order, have fun.
Jeanne W.
--- Carol Tripp wrote:
snip:
> Greetings,
> She then
> escorted me outside and showed
> me a photo of a puzzle mug. She wants to have a
> puzzle mug on each table at
> her wedding reception.
> I am not really that crazy about the idea of wedding
> guests accidentally
> spilling drinks down their fronts but what the bride
> to be wants, she gets.
>
>
> To cut to the chase, I've never made a puzzle mug,
> let alone seen or used
> one in real life. I've had a look at the article by
This looks complicated, fiddly and probably
> expensive in terms of time
> needed for each mug. I'm not a production potter
> and I guess I am looking
> for an experienced potter to say, "Don't touch this
> job with a ten foot pole
> unless you can charge XXX per piece and you enjoy
> torture."
>
>
> Any thoughts?
> Thanks,
> Carol
> Dubai, UAE
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Vicki Hardin on sat 6 dec 03
>If you don't want to tackle the project, tell the
bride to be: "the time and effort for each one of these puzzle mugs
would mean each one would cost - "insert outrageous dollar figure"
and see what see says.>
Then, if the price is too steep as she is reeling backwards, give her an =
estimate for making regular mugs for everyone! Tell her the benefits of =
this, nicely dressed people will not be ruining their clothes, one of =
which could be her mother-in-law...she could provide everyone a mug for =
the same price as the puzzle mug (I am assuming you are getting a really =
good price for those)...and throw in a reminder about the McDonalds hot =
coffee suit just for good measure.
But seriously, if this is going to be a really stressful jobk time =
consuming job, factor in the cost of working on this vs what you would =
normally produce and have on hand to sell. If you could make 5 cups to =
every one puzzle cup then charge 5 times the price. I also have to tell =
you that from reading your post, I sort of gathered that you didn't want =
to do it. If that's the case, then I would suggest that you RUN!
Best Regards,
Vicki Hardin
http://ClayArtWebGuide.com
Wood Jeanne on sat 6 dec 03
The people on this list are so creative!
I am just imagining Fredrick using his extruder for
pasta :-D
Now when I make handles for puzzle jugs I throw them
as the website shows. But previous to this I pulled a
handle around thickish hemp rope, (used for macrame)
to keep the channel open and burn out in firing.
This gave the more graceful outline of a pulled
handle, but I had less cracking with the thrown handle
if a good claybody was used.
Regards,
Jeanne W.
--- Fredrick Paget wrote:
> I devised a way to keep the channels open by
> imbedding cooked pasta
> strands in the clay. It shrinks along with the clay
> and burns out so
> you have an open passageway. You just pull a
> regular handle cut it
> open, lay in the pasta and close it up again. Leave
> a length of pasta
> hanging out the ends, then attach the handle and lay
> the protruding
> pasta into the cup in the rim and the opening at the
> bottom.
>
> The biggest challenge is to find pasta of large
> enough diameter. I
> found some japanese udon noodles that are larger
> than spaghetti.
> Macaroni would be good except that all I have seen
> in the stores is
> cut up in short pieces. I have even tried to make
> some by extruding
> egg noodle dough through an extruder but the result
> was very lumpy
> and weak.
__________________________________
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New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing.
http://photos.yahoo.com/
Steven Slatin on sun 7 dec 03
All wise thoughts, folks, but what about the potter's reputation?
Whoever is happy with puzzle mugs will trot out the potters name, and
whoever gets a white silk shirt-full of red wine will remember it
forever -- but not in a good way, I'd imagine.
Even if the payday is good, being associated with something that might
be taken as a practical joke probably isn't. Offering puzzle mugs
one-off at a studio show or craft fair would be different -- the folks
who picked them up would be ready for their action. This reception idea
sounds like a recipe for disaster, though.
JM2C -- Steve Slatin
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Vicki
Hardin
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2003 2:50 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: Is a commission for puzzle mugs wise?
>If you don't want to tackle the project, tell the
bride to be: "the time and effort for each one of these puzzle mugs
would mean each one would cost - "insert outrageous dollar figure"
and see what see says.>
Then, if the price is too steep as she is reeling backwards, give her an
estimate for making regular mugs for everyone! Tell her the benefits of
this, nicely dressed people will not be ruining their clothes, one of
which could be her mother-in-law...she could provide everyone a mug for
the same price as the puzzle mug (I am assuming you are getting a really
good price for those)...and throw in a reminder about the McDonalds hot
coffee suit just for good measure.
But seriously, if this is going to be a really stressful jobk time
consuming job, factor in the cost of working on this vs what you would
normally produce and have on hand to sell. If you could make 5 cups to
every one puzzle cup then charge 5 times the price. I also have to tell
you that from reading your post, I sort of gathered that you didn't want
to do it. If that's the case, then I would suggest that you RUN!
Best Regards,
Vicki Hardin
http://ClayArtWebGuide.com
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